Nick Ackerman’s mother would often tell him, “Out of the worst things in life, sometimes the best things happen.” 

Despite losing both legs below the knees to an infection when he was 18 months old, Ackerman was determined to be just like the rest of the kids. That determination led him to take up wrestling when he was in third grade, and he became one of the top high school wrestlers in Iowa. He won the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championship in 2001 – the first athlete to become a national champion without the use of his legs – while studying environmental science at Simpson College. 

Ackerman was ready to embark on a career as a game warden, until he got a call one night from a boy from Texas who had looked Ackerman up after he had been featured in USA Today for winning the national wrestling title. The boy, crying, told him how he had lost one leg in a car wreck and was going to probably lose the other one. After the call, Ackerman recalled turning to his college roommate and saying, “Wow – I’ve got to make his legs.” 

A month before graduation, he called American Prosthetics & Orthotics Inc., the company that had made his legs for him since he was a toddler, and he was hired as a technician. 

“Honestly, it’s a very little-known field,” he said. “We deal with one-half of 1 percent of the population, but we influence their lives greatly.” In the process of making prosthetic limbs, “you can’t compromise,” he said. “Literally every step they take is on something you developed.” 

An avid bow hunter, Ackerman volunteers every fall with nonprofit SERV Outdoors to provide a bow hunting experience in Montana for disabled veterans, and also participates on veteran fishing trips with Wounded Warriors. 

He and his wife, Rachel, have three young boys, ages 5, 3 and 1, whom he enjoys taking hunting or wrestling in the basement. 

Reasons he’s a Forty:

• In 2009 he was instrumental in getting state legislators to pass the Iowa Prosthetic Parity Law.  
• He serves as vice president on the board of the Iowa Amputee Golf Association and assists annually in a golf event to raise money for scholarships. 
• He is helping to organize a Wounded Warrior softball game that will be held at Principal Park this summer. 
• He is an inspirational speaker on overcoming disabilities to businesses, organizations, students and amputee athletes.